Youths had a bad example?

A recent report on on teenage behaviour in Britain was disturbing. We older folk wring our hands and ask, "What is the world coming to? It was never like this in my day." Yes, life was different for those of us who grew up during the war years.

The question for today, though, is how could we let down young people so much?

Behaviour is learned, and if there is little or no respect for anything or anyone by teenagers we have to ask who has taught them to behave like that? Teachers have their hands tied and children can't be disciplined appropriately.

But however much we may despair, perhaps there is hope after all.

Two quotations:

1. "The young prowl the streets and the precincts, alienated, rootless, pain turning to violence. And the old, the weak, and the poor all cringe, their welfare, their lives, threatened and vulnerable."

2. "The world is passing through troubled times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age; they talk as if they alone know everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are foolish and immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress."

The first quotation is from a version of Psalm 7 and the second was written by Peter the Hermit in 1274.

Ray Smith, Shrewsbury